Yet some more petroleum producer news

Care of the Casper Star Tribune


By JEFF GEARINO
Southwest Wyoming bureau
Monday, November 3, 2008 2:05 AM MST

ROCK SPRINGS -- Another fight over oil and gas leasing on Little Mountain and in the Red Desert's Jack Morrow Hills area is brewing in southwest Wyoming.

Hunting and fishing conservationists said this week the groups will submit formal protests for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's planned Dec. 2 competitive oil and gas lease sale.

The areas up for lease include some parcels on Little Mountain in southern Sweetwater County and in the Jack Morrow Hills in northern part of the county.

Conservationists said the auction of oil and gas leases will threaten the two areas, which are rich in wildlife, including prime sage grouse habitat, cultural and recreational resources.

Officials with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Wildlife Federation said the leasing of several parcels within the two areas should be put on hold.

"We think this 11th-hour fire sale of our public lands should be put on hold, because the industry already has many times more lease acreage than it can possible drill," said Biodiversity wildlife biologist Erik Molvar.

Several conservation groups formally protested an earlier BLM lease sale Aug. 5, which included some parcels on Little Mountain. But the protests were denied, the sale proceeded and the parcels were leased.

For more than a decade, the Jack Morrow Hills north of Rock Springs have been a key battleground in the oil and gas industry boom enveloping southwest Wyoming -- primarily in the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah oil and gas fields in northern Sweetwater and Sublette counties.

Little Mountain was thrust into the energy fray in December when the Oklahoma-based Devon Energy Co. announced plans to conduct a two-well exploratory drilling project near the mountain.

A popular county recreation area, Little Mountain lies about 40 miles south of Rock Springs, near the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

The mountain is home to several premier hunting areas for elk and deer, as well as sage grouse, Colorado River cutthroat trout and other wildlife.

A loose coalition of conservationists, faith-based organizations, blue-collar workers and hunters panned the project at the time amidst fears the small wildcat project could lead to full-scale development on the mountain.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal also decried the drilling project and a follow-up proposal by Devon to conduct three-dimensional seismic surveys as part of the project.

Devon officials said during a recent tour of the company's two exploratory well sites that geology and technology will go a long way toward reducing the company's footprint on the mountain.

Company officials said with proper planning and the necessary resources, drilling can be conducted in an environmentally sensitive manner and without significant harm to wildlife.

They noted the area's geology would make any commercial development by Devon a "unique play" that would not require nearly as many wells and well pads as the more intense development to the north in the Jonah Field.

Jack Morrow Hills

The 620,000-acre Jack Morrow Hills have been at the center of the national energy debate in western Wyoming for more than a decade. The area contains stark, unique scenery and spectacular formations such as the Boar's Tusk, Steamboat Mountain, the Killpecker Sand Dunes and the Honeycombs.

The area also has vast resources of natural gas, oil and coal. The hills contain an estimated 315 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Bruce Pendery, Public Lands Director for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said in a release it's been more than 10 years since a lease was sold in the Jack Morrow Hills area. He noted during that time, oil and gas development in Wyoming hasn't slowed.

"The Jack Morrow Hills and Little Mountain are too valuable for their wildlife, historical and recreation resources to be opened to development now, when the evidence shows we can have oil and gas without sacrificing areas like these," Pendery said.

He said the two leases in the hills include some prime sage grouse habitat sites that are included in the governor's recently adopted sage grouse conservation strategy.

The deadline for protests is 4 p.m., Nov. 17, according to the BLM's lease sale notice. Once the protests are received, the agency will make a decision to either withdraw the parcels or to proceed with offering the parcels at the sale.

Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com